Who’s Counting?

An Israeli air strike killed at least 33 people in northeastern Lebanon on Friday and Hizbollah fired scores of rockets into Israel in a worsening conflict that world powers have failed to halt.

It was the second deadliest strike in Lebanon after an air raid killed up to 54 civilians in the village of Qana on Sunday.

That made me curious, since the Associated Press reported yesterday that the initial Qana casualty report was inflated:

The Israeli bombing of Qana became a textbook case Thursday when a new look at the civilian death toll in this week’s Israeli airstrike showed it was about half the initial report.

The Qana casualties were re-examined after Human Rights Watch issued a report late Wednesday saying 28 people died in the village Sunday after Israeli jets hit it – not 54 as the New York-based organization initially reported in the immediate aftermath of the attack. At the time, The Associated Press reported 56 were dead.

A Google News search indicates that Reuters has yet to report the reduced casualty count. Interestingly, though, current Reuters stories say that “up to 54″ people were killed at Qana, while the original Reuters accouts said “at least 54.”